A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Alrashim Chambers Murder Trial Update

Alrashim Chambers is the alleged killer of transwoman Victoria Carmen White. His murder trial started in Newark ironically on April 30, the day that Victoria Carmen White would have been celebrating her 30th birthday.

It has been chugging along in the Essex County Courthouse while the eyes of the trans community were fixed on the CeCe McDonald trial happening in Minneapolis that started the same day and others were mourning the murders of Paige Clay in Chicago and Brandy Martell in Oakland..

To bring y'all up to speed on the story of Victoria Carmen White, the 28 year Maplewood, NJ model met Chambers at a nightclub in Irvington, NJ while on a girls night out with her cousin Sharon White and Natasha Wray in September 2010.

They returned to Sharon White's Maplewood apartment and when Chambers discovered she was trans he shot her multiple times. Carmen White was pronounced dead at the scene and Chambers was arrested a month later along with Marquise Foster.

Chambers was arraigned back in July 2011 on murder and bias intimidation charges and is facing in prison if justice is served in this case. Foster was also indicted for murder but plead guilty to a lesser sentence in exchange for his testimony against Chambers..

Carmen's cousin Sharon White and Natasha Wray were in the apartment's bathroom at the time of the murder and testified Tuesday on behalf of the prosecution Ms. White and Ms. Wray both testified that Chambers was kissing Carmen White and went to the bathroom to give the couple some privacy. Foster was on his phone at the time.

When the bathroom door briefly swung open at one point, the women saw Carmen White leaning against Chambers, with her shirt partially pulled up.

"I yelled to my cousin, was she good," Sharon White testified. "She said she was ok."

Minutes later, the party turned deadly when Sharon White and Wray both testified they heard a man yell: "You a dude?" followed by three gunshots.

The bathroom door was closed at that moment so neither Sharon White or Wray could tell who fired the shots. They also couldn’t ascertain who uttered the statement, the tone of which sounded like "a question, with anger," as Sharon White put it.

In his previous statement to police, Marquise Foster said he and Chambers both had sexual encounters with Carmen White during those few minutes when the women were in the bathroom, but that only the defendant suspected she was a trans woman.

The trial continues with Sharon White and Natasha Wray's testimony, and as I hear the updates from it, I'll pass them on to you TransGriot readers.

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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